Suggestions sought for new class ring design

March 27, 2003

KALAMAZOO -- The WMU Alumni Association has launched an initiative
to establish a new tradition as Western Michigan University begins
its second century--a single WMU ring. Students, faculty, staff
and alumni are invited to submit their ideas for strong school
symbols that can be incorporated in the new ring, which will
be available this coming fall.

"The goal of a single-ring program is to create a symbol
or group of symbols, second only to the diploma, that will immediately
identify individuals as graduates of Western Michigan University,"
says Erin Spaulding, assistant director of alumni relations.
"A committee will use the submitted ideas to help determine
the ring's design."

Single-ring programs, where all students and alumni wear a
ring with the same design, are not new. Spaulding notes that
many colleges and universities have had successful single-ring
programs for decades. Other schools, including WMU, have never
had such a program or abandoned it in the 1970s.

"Multiple ring designs offered by multiple vendors take
the tradition out of class rings and make them simply pieces
of customized jewelry," Spaulding says. "With the purchase
of an official ring, graduates will be investing in a lifelong
tradition with their classmates as well as those who came before
them. The ring will reflect more than a graduate's individuality-it
will symbolize WMU."